If 2006's big PPV-related news was the relaunch of ECW as a third brand, 2007's was the relaxing of the brand split and the ceasing of promoting single-branded PPVs. Realising that their roster was pretty thin with regards to proper main event level talent, WWE began to merge Raw, Smackdown and, yes, ECW together for supershows. The results were sketchy, to say the least. While the increase in star power and the possibility of seeing more title matches definitely increased fan anticipation, it didn't necessarily always lead to better shows overall. Away from the squared circle, the biggest news of the year was the horrific Benoit tragedy. Coming halfway through the year, it really split the year into two halfs. There was 'before Benoit' and there was 'after Benoit'. The Signature Pharmacy steroid scandal and resulting suspensions also helped shape WWE's pay-per-view events. Add in some injuries, departures and other goings on and it makes for a very busy year indeed. With all of these other distractions, what did WWE manage to produce for the big shows? The following are 2007's 15 PPV events, ranked form worst to best...
15. New Year's Revolution
The Good: The show started off really well with a good, competitive IC Title Cage Match with Champion Jeff Hardy retaining against Johnny Nitro. These two had some blistering battles over the autumn and winter months with this being one of the best. DX and Rated-RKO's long-awaited grudge match was going so well...until Triple H blew out his quad executing a spinebuster on Edge during the comeback. The match fell apart, necessitating wily veteran Shawn Michaels to take over and call the rest of the action on the fly. Randy Orton performed an award-winning juice job in the closing stages. And finally, John Cena and Umaga had a decent main event, albeit one notably inferior to the stunning Last Man Standing match they'd have just weeks later at the Royal Rumble (more on that later). The Bad: The tag team turmoil match was the same it was every single time, AKA pointless and overly long. Can you believe that WWE had Kenny Dykstra go over Ric Flair on PPV? Yes, at one point WWE were very high on the former Spirit Squad leader. Mickie James and Victoria had a really clumsy Women's Title match. You'd expect more from these two. You'd also expect more from Chris Masters and Carlito, who seemed to be going through the motions in their semi-final showdown. Saying that, it's hard to blame them when they were only given six minutes to work with. The Rest: Triple H's quad blowout came at a price, halting the DX comeback tour and forcing a change to the WrestleMania main event. Triple H's DX buddy Shawn Michaels would greatly benefit from the whole situation, mind.
